Countdown on for the elections

THERE comes a time when all the talking has to stop – at the doorsteps that is, as candidates try to cover the last bit of ground that might give them the edge in the run up to the Local and European Elections. 

Tomorrow, May 24, voters will go to the polls to elect councillors for our local authorities and new MEPS to give us a voice on the European stage. 

There is also a Divorce Referendum taking place on the same day so be prepared to spend a bit of time at your local count centre. 

The Local and European Elections only take place every five years (even the World Cup doesn’t take as long to come around!) so if you don’t rate the people who’ve been representing you since 2014 now’s your chance to ditch them and give some new candidate a chance. 

On the other hand, the person you chose back then may be doing such a sterling job that you can see them becoming a TD or potentially even a Government Minister. The power is in your hands! 

While elections and referendums can be marked by ‘voter apathy’ particularly amongst the youth, in these elections there seems to be a lot of young candidates bidding to get their feet on the political ladder.

Whether younger voters relate to them and finally exercise their right to vote is another matter, however.

Remember, though, after you vote for your candidate, and if they’re lucky enough to get elected, they’re at your beck and call.

It’s their job to bring your problems/issues to the council and try to have them resolved in the quickest timeframe possible.

However, if you’re not totally satisfied with your local public representative, don’t be too harsh. It’s worth bearing in mind that in a lot of cases, they have full-time jobs like the rest of us. 

Also, there is only so much power they actually have after being elected. On a particularly contentious issue, your public representative may vote the way that you would like, but then find they’re out-voted by councillors from another party.

For a councillor representing his or her constituents, it’s probably one of the most frustrating aspects of the job.

While Dublin is divided into four Local Authority areas, Northside voters will only be concerned with two of them this Friday – Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council. 

Dublin City Council is split into 11 Local Electoral Areas (LEA) straddling both sides of our iconic River Liffey and a large swathe of candidates will be vying for the 63 available seats. 

Fingal County Council comprises seven Local Electoral Areas (LEA) with candidates set to battle it out for the 40 seats on offer.

Issues reverberating from the doorsteps this time round invevitably would have included the housing crisis, the state of the health service, Local Property Tax and major transport projects such as Metro North and BusConnects. 

Smaller matters like getting potholes filled and the grass cut more regularly on the local green space would have been further down the pecking order.   

So whoever you decide to vote in folks, remember you’re ‘stuck’ with them for five years. If a week is a long time in politics can you imagine what five years will feel like?

Fortunately, though, we live in a democracy and have the right to vote. Now it’s up to us to back our candidates.

For all the doorstep chit-chat, filling every lamppost on the Northside with mugshots and kissing frightened babies in local shopping centres, this phase of the campaign has finally come to an end. Let the race for those much-coveted council and European seats begin!